LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

Culturally confident
GameCity’s director, Iain Simons, said he was “delighted” by the choice.

His festival is now in its sixth year. Over that time he says he has seen a rise in the average age of gamers, and more women attracted to the activity.

“There is a much broader constituency of people playing games,” he said.

“They have become more normalised, they have been more culturally confident and this prize, and the festival, is very much about exploring that confidence.”

Part of the phenomenon is linked to the rise of smartphones. Today’s handsets helped popularise the kind of sophisticated games that used to be restricted to dedicated mobile games machines, and larger home consoles.

The GameCity festival was created to give the public a chance to meet the talent behind computer games
Advances in computer processors and graphics chips undoubtedly offer developers a bigger palette to choose from. However, Mr Simon does not think the developments make any difference to the designers’ status as artists.

“I think that technology is a real red herring. What technology is driving forward is the ability for games to look more real. To look like what a triple-A blockbuster would look like,” he said.

“I don’t think that is in itself something that makes them art. Otherwise we wouldn’t cry at Bambi. It’s not about photorealism.”